Anticipated Discoveries of the Bible: Circumcision & the 8th Day

One of the most compelling aspects about the Bible, is the way it anticipates discoveries and technologies that we are just now unlocking. From weapons technologies to sub-atomic particles, the Bible is more contemporary than tomorrow’s newspaper. Consider this truth in light of the ancient Hebraic practice of circumcision.

We read in Genesis 17:9-13

Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant. ”

God told Abraham to circumcise babies on the 8th day of life.

Did you know it wasn’t until 1939 that we had any ideawhy?

The human body has two blood clotting factors. One of them is called Vitamin K. Vitamin K is not formed in the body until the 5th to the 7th day.

The second clotting factor which is necessary is called Prothrombin. It interestingly enough develops to 30% of normal by the 3rd day of life and then with seeming in-consequence, peaks at 110% on the 8th day, before leveling off at 100% of normal.

How did Moses, who would come on the scene after Abraham, know to circumcise on the 8th day? Was it trial and error?

No, the Lord God, maker of heaven and earth, demonstrating his expert knowledge of his creation, knew that the 8th day was the ideal day for such a procedure, not only because of the development of Vitamin K in the blood, but also because of the peaking Prothrombin.

Children today in hospitals are given a Vitamin K shot so that they can clot effectively without waiting the full 8 days.

It took us from approximately 4500 BC until 1939 AD to discover that God knew what He was doing all along.

Will you trust Him today?

Crystal structure of thrombin with an inhibitor

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

How would trial and error have produced the answer of the 8th day? Why not wait until the child is two? If man’s wisdom was driving this, that is exactly what we’d expect to find. Why needlessly flirt with disaster the first week of life? How would trial and error have revealed that Prothrombin was peaking past 100% at the precise time God instructed them to circumcise? Again, we had no knowledge of Vitamin K and Prothrombin until last century. It was not trial and error because this information was directly communicated from the only one who could have known.

All you’d need was some kind of drive to do the procedure as early as possible. Given the importance of circumcision, it isn’t that hard to believe there wouldn’t be such a drive. Its importance makes you circumcise early, but you note if you do it too early then there’d be a rather high mortality rate (or at least, severe risk). So you work backwards, finding the first day you can do it with minimal risk. Which is the 8th day, judging by that graph.

If the eighth day is noticeably the best day to circumcise, then it could not have possibly taken more than 8 tries to get it right; And, seeing as the woman was unclean for 7 days after giving birth, it would make sense to wait until she could also be present for the circumcision.

If the eighth day was “noticeably” the best day to circumcise, then God would not have had to mention it. Which is the entire point–that God had to be the author of the information since man is recording things that could not have been known at the time.

If the eighth day was “noticeably” the best day to circumcise, then why were the Hebrews the only ones with the information? Seems that such a noticeable avoidance of newborn death would have been more widely known, practiced, and recorded by other cultures.

If the eighth day was noticeably the best day, why did it take medical science 20 centuries after Christ to figure it out? The whole point is that it was not obvious–providing you we’re even looking for it. However, once again, our latest discoveries are just now running to catch up to what the Bible has said for thousands of years.